Cradle of Humankind

Cradle of Humankind is a metaphor for that region in which the humanization has taken place, ie the biological evolution and the early cultural development of the genus Homo. This phrase refers in particular to the modern man (Homo sapiens), but often also on its precursor species such as Homo erectus and the australopithecines.

Charles Darwin already in 1871 suggested that man evolved in Africa, since its closest relatives - chimpanzees and gorillas - are located there. Been discovered since 1924, when the then oldest fossil of a direct ancestor of man ( Hominini ) in South Africa ( the Taung Child ), contributed numerous other fossil finds to the fact that Darwin's hypothesis is now regarded as secured very well and therefore Africa by paleoanthropologists as the cradle of humanity is considered. Major sites are located in South Africa and along the Great African grave breach, especially in Kenya, Tanzania and Ethiopia.

As the oldest hominin finds outside Africa, the Dmanisi fossils whose age has been dated to 1.75 bis 1.8 million years apply.

Cradle of Humankind

As Cradle of Humankind (English for Cradle of Humankind ) are referred to for some years the sites homininer fossils in South Africa. In particular, this refers to those sites that are inscribed on the List of World Heritage Sites by UNESCO.

In 1999, a 25,000 -acre site in the Witwatersrand Basin, approximately 50 kilometers northwest of Johannesburg in Gauteng Province, designated as a protected area. It includes 15 major excavation sites with hundreds of limestone caves in which numerous remains of fossil plants, animals and hominids have been found. It includes, among others, the caves of Sterkfontein and Swartkrans, the Wonder Cave and the Coopers Cave of Kromdraai and the Malapa cave. Almost a third of all previously known pre-human fossils were discovered here.

In 2005, the World Heritage Site to the situated about 300 kilometers from the core site location of the first fossils of Australopithecus africanus at Taung in the North West Province and the Makapansgat ( Makapan Valley ) near Mokopane in the Limpopo Province has been extended.

Since 2005 there is a visitor center named Maropeng ( Setswana for return to our origin ) near the Sterkfontein Caves. The externally designed partly as a grave mound building provides space for exhibitions, among others, to the earth's history, the emergence of fossils and evolution; further replicas of all major hominin fossils are shown.